Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-05
WHOLE NO. 1925.


capable of producing an amount of hn1nau food
equal to tha, produced by twenty acres in the
past. The Malthusian thsory of population.
with which every student OF political economy
IS familiar, predicted linAitation upon the,
numbers of the race by assuming a ratio OF III,
crease between the food proeHet ard the in
crease of population. II conteuied that popu.
lation increased IN a geometrics1 ratio, while
the food product increased only liz, an arithmet-
ical ratio, and that therefore the capacity of the
earth to produce food would not kee D pace with
the increase of population The theory of pop
ulation advanced by NJ slthus tailed, because he
did notmake allowance for the great progress
winch has been madein inventions, nos for the
improved methods Of cultivation which civil
za'ioH has introduced. The real truth Is that
the lr.,eH
oArAcitf OF THE PEoiFK OF THE EARTH TO
t3E.iH PEODUcE FOOD
Is much greater in proportion to their nurit.a-s
than during the time of Matthias. Take an ex-
ample which is very near at home. The ayri-
cultural population of California does not ex-
ceed one hunored thousand people There are
not in excess of 29,oGo adults engaged in agri-
cultural pursuits in California, and yet these
zV'ooo lheh produce an annual export surplus
equal 70 from one million TO twelve and thirteen
hundred thousand tons per annum. One mill
ion tors of wheat per annum win furnish bread
stun ior ten millions of people. Here then in,
cailiornla twenty thousand people, by the as
siStance OF labor-aiding machinery are produc-
ing IN single year bread sufficient 10 feed ten
miilioris'of people a whole year Right under
our own observation, then,. 2aesB men. produce
IN single year bread enough to feed five hun
dred times their own number In a state of
baEbarism, or even in the more primitive stages
OF civilization, this result would have been i'm.
possible. III fact, in 3 state of barbarism the
individual with his bare hands and possibly a
few rude implements of agriculture and hunting
equipments. is barely able to support himself
and minister to his own physical wants. Con-
ditions III a state of barbarism may appear to be
more nearly equaliZed to superficial obserya-
tion, because all are on the dead level of abiect
poverty, below the line of which there is SUBJ
mergenee or actual starvation have already
said that
THE WANTS OF MEN ARE LIMITED ONLY BY TIIEIR
INTELLEcTUAL CAPACITY TO PERCEIVE THEM.
Let me add to that a most obvious fact with
the capacity to perceive wants. the power TO
fndHhe means Of their qualification is also very
greatly increased. In low conditions of civiliza-
ton the wants are few and the productive ca
pacity yicOrrespondinsly low. III a high civiliza-
ton wants are multiplied. and become more
complex, ana the capacity of man to supply
them is augmented even in much greater ratio
than the capacity to perceive them. In stages
of civilized development where the wants are
very few, and the habits of life very simple, the
use of latoraiding machinery is also very
limited; but with the expansion of the mind
undercivilizing influence, the inventive genius
rises, and while new wants have birth in the
mind, sstin greater capacities for producing the
things required to crafty these wants are also
engendered.
WHAT POVERTY SUGGESTS
When you meet with a man who is poorly
clad, p0oSly fed, living in state of poverty,
you are always beset with the painful reflection
that the unused portions of the earth would
offer a broad field for the application of that
man productive capacity which would yield
him and his family an abundance. When you
see rlan without employment. and reflect that
but small area of the earth from which all the
wantsOf man are supplied, is under cultivation,
and therefore but very small proportion of the
earth yielding its abundance to supply the
wantsof men, the contemplation is necessarily
saddeniIrg. The fault is with the organization
of our industrial systems. The individual so
circuInstanced belong to the class of people who
wait the action of an employer, instead of
originating employments for themselves. Now,
the employer class originates employments only
for the qualification of its own wants. Tho
hirer of labor uses other men in the employed
relation only to the extent that his own wants
demand
COOPERATION WILL DIMINISH THE sr-ppTI-s 6.5 ,ss
Those, therefore, who having productive
capacity, remain in poverty, belong to the class
who constitute the surplus over and above the
numbers required TO satisfy by the product of
their labor the wants of the employer class.
The numbers belonging to this surplus class
would be constantly diminished, and would
eventually disappear under the operation of the
cooperative principle. In the first place CO.
operation would so improve the condition of
the working men engaged in it that their own
wants would be multiplied, and a greater de
mand for labor would ensue; and in the second
place, too much Importance cannot be attached
to Tire fact that no man can do anything unless
he has first received preparatory education.
This is just as indispensable in an employer of
labor rs it is in any other department of human
activity. The number of employers of men
viii necessarily be limited to the number who
have the capacity to accomplish profitable re-
suits through others.
COOPERATION WOULD BE a PREPARATORY SCHOOL
Qualifying men, not only to direct their own
energies, bu; TO direct the labor and skill ofoth-
ers. Let us illustrate this plainly and simply.
Suppose that to-day for every one hundred men
engaged in manual labor there is but one en-
ployer who is originating employment for the
other ninety nine. This one individual, l. may
safely be presumed, is the only one among the
one hundred who is qualified to successfully
direct to a profitable issue the productive capsc-
ity the skill and the industry Of the Others
Now, suppose that twenty out of these one hun
dred form cooperative association, and
thereby become the employers of their own Ia
Dor. Each begins by first directing his own.
Having mastered this problem, each is now
prepared to take the next step, and to become
she employer of others.
EMPLOYERS EDUCATED BY co-ceEEATIoN.
Here, then, cooperative association be-
comes school in which employers are edu-
Gated, and eventually, instead of one man i'll
one hundred having the requisite capacity to
direct the employment of Others you have
| twenty-one-because the cooperative associa-
| tlOn mas qulllueu twenty new men iOf tnc llgn
| and beneficial Office of originating employ
ments and directing successfully the productive
| energy of their fellow With the increase
| in the number Of those qualified to proftably
| direct the employmeDts of their fellows, there
| is to be a corresponding increase in henumbers
! de2nanded by the proprietoS or the employer
classes and with the increase of the number of
employers there is necessarily corresponding
| intensity OF competition between them in the
| field of originating employment. This compet-
! tive relation alone would raise the reward Of
| labor. Increase the number of those who have
sufficient capacity to originate employment and
derive a, profit out of directng the energies and
| industries of their fellow-men, AID you neces-
sarily Increase the de-aand for eraployes Thus,
cooperation will increase the number of those
qualified to Originate employments, and thus.
import into the industrial system a competition
among the employer class, condition highly
| Favorable to the employed
Eree Trade.
The reduction of internal revenue and
the taking off of revenua stamps from pro-
pristary medisines, no doubt has largely
| benefited the. consumers, as well as reliey-